Column: Local group angry over end of handout

By Jon Dawson / Columnist

Published: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 08:08 PM.

One of the many things that get people angry these days is the idea of a handout.

If you’re working 50 to 70 hours per week just to keep flour in the pantry, the idea of someone getting a free ride probably doesn’t sit well with you. Many Free Press readers take to Facebook on a daily basis to rail against the idea of people being rewarded for not doing any work.

Be it the soccer team that goes 0-12, yet still receives a trophy or the guy who’s figured out how to make more money on disability for psoriasis than you do working two jobs, this is the kind of thing that drives otherwise calm people into a frothing rage.

Usually we preach impartiality at The Free Press, but I’ve decided it’s time to make a stand. It’s time to stop adding to the burden of the people who do the work while the freeloaders, barnacles, moochers, parasites, sponges and leeches do nothing but take.

The free ride is over.

To prove that we stand with the working men and women of our community, we’ve decided to stop giving away our product for free on the Internet.

For years, people have been able to visit Kinston.com and catch up on local, sports and entertainment news for free. We never asked the non-subscribers who read Kinston.com for free to help us pay the reporter’s salaries, insurance or mileage reimbursements.

One of the many things that get people angry these days is the idea of a handout.

If you’re working 50 to 70 hours per week just to keep flour in the pantry, the idea of someone getting a free ride probably doesn’t sit well with you. Many Free Press readers take to Facebook on a daily basis to rail against the idea of people being rewarded for not doing any work.

Be it the soccer team that goes 0-12, yet still receives a trophy or the guy who’s figured out how to make more money on disability for psoriasis than you do working two jobs, this is the kind of thing that drives otherwise calm people into a frothing rage.

Usually we preach impartiality at The Free Press, but I’ve decided it’s time to make a stand. It’s time to stop adding to the burden of the people who do the work while the freeloaders, barnacles, moochers, parasites, sponges and leeches do nothing but take.

The free ride is over.

To prove that we stand with the working men and women of our community, we’ve decided to stop giving away our product for free on the Internet.

For years, people have been able to visit Kinston.com and catch up on local, sports and entertainment news for free. We never asked the non-subscribers who read Kinston.com for free to help us pay the reporter’s salaries, insurance or mileage reimbursements.

Donations were never sought for building upkeep, computers, tape recorders, notepads, pens, pencils or phone and Internet service — not to mention the money it costs to access Associated Press content. We assumed that after a while, people would realize they were accessing information that cost money to generate and therefore they’d be compelled to send in a few bucks. Sadly, this never happened.

Another thing I noticed was that a large number of the people who complained about The Free Press weren’t even subscribers. One guy who seemingly turned complaining about the paper into a hobby recently wrote 12 Facebook entries detailing his problems with the way a political story was covered. Anyone who cared this much about The Free Press surely must be a customer, so we searched our database for his name — but it wasn’t there. Surely someone who griped this much about a product was actually paying for it, right?

It turns out Mr. Career Complainer had never subscribed to The Free Press. I instant-messaged him on Facebook and asked where he bought his paper from, and he boasted like a proud father that he’d never paid for it. I then asked if he saw anything wrong with lobbing complaints about a product he’d been getting for free. No response.

For everyone who is throwing a fit because a company has decided to stop giving away a product that costs thousands of dollars to produce, I have a solution. Beginning Nov. 18, The Free Press will be starting a new program that will allow readers to access Kinston.com without paying a subscription fee. This new program is called the Equal Trade Initiative.

The way the ETI works is simple: We will provide you with one year of free access to Kinston.com in exchange for goods/services of the same monetary value. If you’re an insurance salesman, simply provide us with $120 in free coverage. If you’re a farmer, just bring down $120 in produce to our offices and we’ll hook you up. Whether you’re an accountant, lawyer, masseuse, landscaper, mechanic, masseuse, teacher, doctor, masseuse, nurse, cook, masseuse, salesman or shrink, all you have to do is do some work for us for free and in return, we’ll give you our work for free.

That’s fair, right?

The pre-launch word of mouth on our new ETI initiative has been so positive that we’ve already received a year’s worth of free eggs, although in the future, we’d prefer they not be thrown at the building.

Jon Dawson’s columns appear every Tuesday and Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s book “Making Gravy in Public” at jondawson.com.